NEW DELHI: The government has decided to put a blanket ban on several websites that allow users to share pornographic content.

 In an order dated June 13, department of telecom (DoT) has directed internet service providers (ISPs) to block 39 websites. Most of them are web forums, where internet users share images and URLs to download pornographic files. But some of these websites are also image hosts and file hosts, mostly used to store and share files that are non-pornographic.

The Government of India is all set to make discovering and sharing pornographic content difficult online. It has decided to impose a blanket ban over websites that allow users to share such content over the Internet.

In an order dated June 13, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has directed Internet Service providers to block access to about 39 such websites, reports The Times of India. These websites encompass forums where explicit images are swapped and downloaded and URLs to such images shared. The list also contains image hosts and file hosts that are used to save and share images of the sort. Watching adult porn is not been banned in India but watching or distributing child pornography is illegal. The websites that have been blocked are hosted outside India and claim to be operating under the 18 USC 2257 rule enforced by the US that requires producers to maintain records that the actors were over 18 years of age at the time of the video being shot.

A senior DoT official told the publication that the department was merely following orders issued by the cyber security coordination committee and was unable to talk about specific reasons behind the block.

The President of Internet Service Providers Association of India, Rajesh Chharia says that it isn't possible for the ISP providers to pushback DoT orders. "But I feel ideally the government should ask the people who have produced objectionable content to remove it from the web if these people are in India," he adds. "If they are outside, the websites should be blocked at the international cable landing stations. Involving 150-odd ISPs to implement an order is not the right way to do it." 

My View

Banning files sharing or pornographic websites is definitely not the solution – Internet users have 100 workarounds to access blocked and banned sites. If at all any website is violating Indian laws, the website owner should be notified and should be asked to take down the content, rather than banning the whole site.

Also, in such cases, Govt. needs to be transparent about the reasons that they are blocking such websites. They need to get a court order which requires valid ground for a ban.

We are trying to get more details and actual transcript of the order. We will update this post once we are able to get our hands on it!

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